TOURIST MAGNET The Dakota is on the corner of 72nd and Central Park West, Dorothy lived a few blocks away for years. Lauren Bacall and Boris Karloff used to be tenants, now it's home to people like Maury Povich and Connie Chung.

After living on the same block as The Dakota for nine years, I have a take-it-or-leave it attitude with the landmark. Let's just say no resident will ever invite me inside for a drink to One Central Park West Avenue.

PARKER BEATLES The apartment over the main entrance belongs to Yoko Ono, according to a former Dakota housekeeper who was waiting for a bus with me one night. On Dec. 8, 1980, John Lennon was slain on the pavement in front of this entrance.

It is indeed the place where Rosemary's Baby was filmed and John Lennon gunned down, and not a day goes by that I don't see a damn tourist taking a photo of the pavement. Yoko Ono still lives here.

The Dakota was built in 1884 by Henry Hardenbergh, when living on the West Side was seen as not as fashionable as the East Side. Dorothy lived for years in the neighborhood, and it is part of Dot City because it's the kind of address some her friends may have had. Reading "You Were Perfectly Fine" (1929) about a night of boozing, one can see it set in a giant old apartment in the Dakota. It is kind of an outrageous looking building, with its green and brown peaked roofs.

A Parker connection: Judy Garland used to live here. Parker was the Oscar-nominated screenwriter for A Star is Born (1937) and Garland was in the first remake (1954).